Dear Larry, and ALL My Friends at Pebble Hill Church,
As always, it was a GREAT pleasure to be with you on Sunday, October 29th. I have many times – both publicly and privately – expressed my deep love and affection for Pebble Hill. It truly is one of the most beautiful, wonderful, Heart-full, and unpretentious spiritual communities I have every been a part of.
For many years, I have been coming periodically to speak – sometimes in conjunction with teaching responsibilities at the School of Sacred Ministries, and sometimes just to visit the Church. I have been well aware of the fiscal challenges faced by Pebble Hill and have often reflected on how I might be more supportive.
Whenever I visited, I was I told – by Larry and many other members – that the Sunday congregation was larger than usual, and donations increased. While I was honored to know this, the more important issue was that it seemed to point to an opportunity to help Pebble Hill. Back in 2016 I proposed to Larry that I might come on a more regular basis. Larry and I agreed that I would come four times in 2017 to see if these visits might help to engender more regularity and enthusiasm on the part of congregants, and greater cash flow for the Church.
When Larry told me this past Sunday that going forward the Church had elected to abandon our ?plan?I was saddened, but not surprised. Just eyeballing the size of the congregation at each of my visits suggested to me that there wasn?t any dramatic, perceptible growth. Theoretically, if I offer a workshop in the afternoon, it can increase the income for both the church – and me – but the last time I offered one at Pebble Hill, only one person came.
The ?business?of offering spiritual teachings is a great challenge in our culture. We have no built-in mechanism that encourages people to offer financial support to spiritual teachers and institutions. And most sincere, mature spiritual seekers are turned off by any effort by teachers or institutions to ?sell?them spirituality. As I have often shared, in India people are actively seeking to give a part of their often meagre funds to spiritual teachers, temples, and ashrams because it is known to be very ?good karma?to do so. But in America, it is often one of the last things on an individual?s preferred list of places to spend and send their money. As I told Larry on Sunday, the challenges Pebble Hill faces are by no means unique. They are shared by many, many churches and spiritual communities throughout the country.
All of that being honored and recognized, I just want to say that I treasure my relationship with Pebble Hill. ALL of you who make up the Collective Heart of Pebble Hill?s beautiful and precious existence . . . will remain deeply embraced in my Heart . . . and I will always be delighted and honored to return whenever you ask.
Namaste, and Heartfelt Blessings,
Ramananda
(John E. Welshons)
